


Xenobotany 101

by indiegal85



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: F/F, Polyamory, Xenobotany
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-13 02:21:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15354105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indiegal85/pseuds/indiegal85
Summary: Kira needs Keiko’s help with an unusual plant-based situation.





	Xenobotany 101

**Author's Note:**

  * For [brightclam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightclam/gifts).



> Written as part of the @sapphicstartrek exchange for @brightclam on Tumblr. I hope you enjoy!

It was a little after eight in the evening when Kira Nerys rang the door chime of the O’Briens’ quarters on Deep Space Nine. The door was answered after a moment by Miles, who looked a little startled to see her.

‘Major,’ he greeted. ‘Is something the matter?’

Kira smiled in reassurance. ‘Actually, I’m here to see Keiko. Is she in?’

‘Keiko? Sure. Come on in.’ Looking no less confused, the chief stood back to let Kira in. Keiko was sitting on the couch in their quarters, reading a book, but looked up at her entrance.

‘Major,’ she said, ‘This is a pleasant surprise. What can we do for you?’

‘Actually I’m afraid it’s business, rather than pleasure,’ Kira replied with an apologetic grimace. ‘I was wondering if you could help us out. We’ve just arrested a couple of petty criminals known for smuggling, but when we checked their cargo hold all they seem to be carrying this time is a large amount of plants. We’re sure they’re up to no good but can’t work out what the plants have got to do with it all. Could you take a look for us and see what you think?’

Keiko put her book aside with a smile. ‘Of course. Would you like me to come now?’

‘If it’s not inconvenient.’

‘Not at all. You’ve piqued my interest!’ Keiko stood and the two women left the quarters, heading towards the docks.

‘Internal sensors on their ship are down so we can’t just scan the whole lot, and there seems to be a large amount of different varieties,’ Kira explained as they walked. ‘We thought it would be quicker to involve someone who knows what they’re doing. I’m sorry to cut into your evening.’

‘Honestly, I don’t mind. It’s been a while since I’ve used this part of my knowledge though, I can’t promise I’ll know everything without looking them up.’

They reached the docking ring and Kira ushered her through an airlock, down into the bowels of a rather grimy ship of unusual design. The Major pressed a button by the side of a sturdy looking door, which rolled open to reveal a mass of green. The room beyond was packed with plants, of all different shapes and sizes, with almost every colour of the rainbow dotted amongst the green. Large fronds waved over the top of small needles and leaves blurred together so closely were they packed. Keiko stood for a moment, attempting to take in the details of the scene before her eyes widened and she turned abruptly.

‘Out, now!’ she said firmly, clapping a hand over her mouth and nose and pushing Kira back through the door. Once it had closed behind them, she barrelled swiftly through the ship, hit the airlock controls to shut the doors and turned to Kira. ‘Get anyone else that’s on there off now. This ship needs to be in quarantine. And everyone who has been on there, including us, needs to get to sickbay as soon as possible.’

‘There’s nobody else on board,’ Kira responded, Keiko’s urgency snapping her to attention.

Keiko nodded. ‘Good. Let’s head to sickbay and I’ll explain on the way.’ Kira set a quarantine notice up on the ship and they made their way swiftly to sickbay. ‘Every single plant in that cargo hold, from what I could see, has some kind of highly dangerous property. Some are hallucinogens, some are carcinogenic, some have airborne toxins that can kill you the second you breathe them in.’

At that, Kira picked up her pace and tapped her comm badge. ‘Kira to ops.’

‘Dax here.’

‘I need everyone that’s been anywhere near that Urganian ship we just locked down to report to sickbay right now. Highest priority, do you copy?’

‘Loud and clear Major, but what’s going on?’

Kira grimaced at Keiko. ‘I’ll explain later, if I’m still alive. Kira out.’ They rounded a corner and entered sickbay at a rate of knots, leading a startled Bashir to look up from where he was shuffling some hyposprays.

‘Major, Professor, can I help you?’ Kira looked at Keiko, who spoke up.

‘Scan us, please. You’ll need to recalibrate your instruments to pick up all rare toxins on your books; in fact, probably safest to get them to alert you if there’s _anything_ that deviates from our respective normals.’

‘Of course.’ The doctor, gestured to two biobeds adjacent to each other. The women hopped up and sat back as he worked around them, tapping on consoles and frowning at what he saw. ‘You both look in perfect health to me.’ He frowned. ‘No, wait… computer, narrow that down…’ He tapped some more on the screen by Kira’s bed, and his frown intensified. ‘That’s odd.’

‘What is?’ Keiko jumped down, alarm colouring her tone, and came to stand next to Bashir.

‘There’s a micro-abrasion on one of the aureoles of her left lung…’

‘Purge her bloodstream now!’ Bashir looked at Keiko in shock.

‘Do it!’ commanded Kira, and the doctor grabbed a hypospray, prepped it quickly and held it to the Major’s neck. Keiko relaxed a fraction when she heard the telltale hiss.

‘ _Now_ you can have a look at her blood and see what it’s doing.’

Bashir called up an image that made only a little sense to Keiko but made him react in surprise. ‘What the hell is that?’

‘That is what happens if you breathe in sophoroxis mattaneus spores.’ Keiko turned to smile at Kira. ‘You’ll be fine, honestly. We’ve caught it early, and this is one of the slower acting ones.’

‘Ones of what?!’ Keiko looked away from Kira’s not entirely reassured expression to meet Bashir’s look of confused anger. ‘Why on earth has she come into contact with this? It’s unbelievably rare, not to mention banned under Federation law!’

Keiko and Kira exchanged another look, before Kira answered the question. ‘We’ll be happy to tell you all about it at a later date, but right now we’ve got work to do. Can I go yet?’ Bashir passed an eye over the readouts before giving a reluctant nod. ‘Thank you. We will explain, I promise, but in the meantime prepare for a few more patients. Do the same for them as you did for us, and if you have any questions address them to Professor O’Brien.’

‘Of course, Major.’ The doctor nodded and Kira slid off the bed, making her way towards the sick bay doors. Keiko followed, and as soon as the two were adjacent to each other Kira resumed talking.

‘What do you need, Professor? I assume time is of the essence?’

Keiko smiled inwardly at the Major’s repeated use of her title, but answered the question. ‘It’s not actually as urgent as you might think, as long as that ship remains in quarantine. We’ll need EV suits to go in there and get a closer look at the plants, but the easiest thing to do would probably just be release them all into space; they’ll die almost instantly.’

Kira made a face. ‘Sounds tempting, but I think we’ll need to find out what was on there first. Let’s get some suits, take a look and then we can dump them all into space. Or an incinerator.’

Keiko grinned briefly. ‘Ok.’ The brief moment of levity didn’t last long, however, before her face took on an expression of concern. ‘How are you feeling? Poisoning isn’t fun, no matter how quickly it’s sorted.’

‘I’m not thinking about it right now, to be honest. Let’s sort the rest of this mess out and then I can worry about what might have happened.’

Keiko nodded and the two women made their way back to the ship, stopping on the way to pick up their protective gear. Once they were inside again, it was a relatively simple process to identify the plants and work proceeded apace. They worked mostly in a comfortable silence, and in less than three hours both women were confident they had catalogued the lot. They left the ship, gladly taking off their helmets once they were outside. The two women smiled at each other as they pulled their heads free, breathing a simultaneous sigh of relief.

‘I can’t thank you enough for your help with this, Professor. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been here.’

Keiko smiled slightly shyly. ‘You’re more than welcome, Major. It’s nice to feel useful. And please, Keiko is fine.’ There was a pause, before Keiko indicated the ship again. ‘What are you going to do with them all then?’

‘I’ll check with Commander Sisko in the morning. He might want to keep some as evidence, but I’m pretty sure we’ll destroy most of it fairly swiftly!’

Keiko nodded seriously. ‘Please, if you do decide to keep any, ask me how.’

Kira smiled. ‘I was planning to, but I feel better now you’ve said it.’ She eyed the remains of Keiko’s EV suit. ‘You should take that off and go home; there’s nothing else we can do for now.’

‘Thanks. I will. But please let me know how things go.’

‘Of course.’

With a final nod and smile, Keiko turned to go, leaving the still suited Kira tapping on the controls by the airlock.

* * *

Keiko was so busy over the next couple of days she barely had a chance to think about the odd experience on the Urganian ship until she had a night to herself in her quarters three days afterwards. Miles was out so she made herself a quick dinner after putting Molly to bed, and was just clearing the plates when the door chimed. Brushing her hands down her front, she crossed to answer it and was not entirely surprised to see Major Kira.

‘Major,’ she greeted with a smile. ‘Good of you to come by. Come in, please.’

‘If you’re Keiko, then I’m Nerys,’ Kira responded as she entered. She looked more relaxed than the last time Keiko had seen her, and she took that (and the fact that Bashir hadn’t contacted her) as a good sign. ‘I hope I’m not interrupting anything.’

‘Not at all. It’s Miles’ date night with Julian so I’m having a quiet night in.’

Kira paused, visibly stumped. ‘Date night?’

‘Yes, they regularly spend a night together a week outside of work; they get very grumpy if they don’t get their time to themselves. I think they’re just watching a movie at Julian’s tonight.’

‘Umm..’ Kira’s expression hadn’t cleared, and Keiko laughed gently.

‘Miles and I are both poly, hasn’t he mentioned it?’

Kira’s eyebrows rose in surprise. ‘No! He’s kept that very quiet!’

Keiko’s face fell suddenly. ‘Oh! He probably doesn’t want you to stop them working together! I’m so sorry, please can you keep it quiet until I’ve had a chance to check with him?’

Kira’s expression relaxed into a smile. ‘Of course. And you know we wouldn’t do that; for a start, nobody wants to deal with either of those two on a bad day!’

Keiko laughed. ‘Thank you. Now what can I do for you, Major… sorry, Nerys?’

Kira grinned mischievously and Keiko felt a pleasant tingle in her stomach. ‘Well, I was coming to update you on the situation with the plants, but now I think that can wait a bit longer.’ She slid a bit closer to Keiko on the couch. ‘After that revelation, I’ve got a much better idea of what we can do with our evening.’

Keiko laughed out loud. ‘Very smooth!’ She laid a hand on the other woman’s knee. ‘And what might that be, then?’

Kira leaned in, lifting a hand to Keiko’s cheek and brushing their lips gently together. ‘Why don’t we start with one of these and see where the night takes us?’ In answer, Keiko pressed her lips more firmly against Kira’s, sliding her arm around her waist as she did so.

‘That sounds like an excellent plan.’

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first DS9 fic I’ve written in about 15 years so apologies for any mistakes! This has also been my first fic exchange and experience of writing to a deadline, so that’s all been new to me too. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed it!


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